I think the Newberys can become overburdened with Problem Novels that appeal to a particular age's problems but are then forgotten. Who remembers all the America's Drug Problem novels of the 1970s? It's not so much that they're dark as that they're Afterschool-Special-y.

Then again, my daughter looked glumly at her pre-9th-grade summer reading and said "It's like they think kids are SUPPOSED to be depressed!"